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Bombers Hit Pakistani Cities as the Army Gains Ground

Pakistani soldiers stood guard Monday near the scene of a suicide blast in Rawalpindi. A similar attack took place in Lahore.Credit
Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Suicide bombers attacked two major Pakistani cities on Monday — one of the them the garrison city of Rawalpindi — as the army claimed control of two strongholds in the northwestern tribal region of South Waziristan, officials said.

The Rawalpindi suicide bomber struck a few hundred yards from the headquarters of the Pakistani Army and outside a branch office of the National Bank of Pakistan, where soldiers and civilians had gathered to collect their monthly salaries and pension payments. At least 35 people were killed and at least 45 were wounded, security and rescue officials said.

Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, an army spokesman, said that four soldiers were among the dead in Rawalpindi and nine among the wounded.

In the evening, an explosives-laden vehicle blew up at a police checkpoint near the entrance to the city of Lahore, said the city’s police chief, Pervez Rathore. Witnesses said that the vehicle was a white Suzuki and that it exploded after police officials tried to stop it from entering the city. The two suicide bombers in the car were killed and 15 people were wounded, most of them police officers.

In a briefing in Islamabad on Monday evening, General Abbas said that Pakistani troops had secured two villages considered strongholds of Uzbek militants in South Waziristan, Kaniguram and Karama. He said the militants were withdrawing into the heartland, and there were reports that they were trying to escape the area.

Military, government and intelligence facilities have repeatedly been targets in recent months, and attacks intensified after the military began its assault against militants in South Waziristan, the stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban.

Photo

Victims of the blast at a hospital in Rawalpindi on Monday.Credit
Alexandre Meneghini/Associated Press

Three weeks ago in Rawalpindi, nine gunmen wearing army uniforms broke into the military headquarters complex and held dozens hostage for 20 hours. A raid by commandos ended the siege, but 16 people were killed, including 8 of the attackers, the military said.

The surviving militant of that attack has been identified as Muhammad Aqeel, whom officials believe to be a member of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a militant group affiliated with Al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban.

The attack on the headquarters was a severe blow to military security and intelligence. Along with the subsequent drive-by assassination of a brigadier and his driver in Islamabad, the attacks demonstrated both the militants’ growing reach and a new flexibility in their tactics.

Also on Monday, the United Nations — whose World Food Program headquarters in Islamabad was attacked on Oct. 5 — said it would scale down its activities in the restive North-West Frontier Province and shift some staff members, according to a spokeswoman for the United Nations in Pakistan. She said that the action did not amount to a suspension of United Nations activities in the area, and that there had been no new direct threats against its staff. Five people were killed in the Oct. 5 attack.

In a statement, the United Nations said its work in the area would focus on emergency assistance and humanitarian relief. The United Nations and affiliated agencies have assisted with tents, medicine, water and food aid for internally displaced Pakistanis fleeing the fighting between the Pakistani military and Islamist militants, first in the Swat Valley and more recently in South Waziristan.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani government used newspaper advertisements to announce cash bounties of more than $600,000 for the capture of Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban; a senior aide, Wali-ur-Rehman; and a cousin, Qari Hussain Mehsud.

A front-page advertisement by the government in The News, the leading English-language daily, carried photos of the top Taliban commanders, along with bounties for each. “People should help the Pakistani government to bring them to justice,” the advertisement said.

Mark McDonald contributed reporting from Hong Kong.

A version of this article appears in print on November 3, 2009, on page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: Bombers Hit Pakistani Cities As the Army Gains Ground. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe